Gotta Knit!

My Day

            

                     
                         
                     
                  

What a lovely lazy birthday I had.   Woke up late (6:45 a.m.) without the dreaded alarm clock making that racket.    Stayed in my PJ's surfing the 'net till I realized I was hungry.   Made a fabulous weekend type breakfast with bacon and scrambled eggs of asparagus, cream cheese and onions.   Then toast with berry jam on it.  Yum!

               
                                 
                                           
                        

When I finally got out of the jammies and into cloths, I had to put on my favorite hat.   I'd been looking for a cowboy hat for several years only to find it when I had finally given up.   Was out window shopping in Santa Barbara with my walking partner (It was my first 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer) when I stumbled upon this store and there was my hat finally.

             

After grabbing my hat I then decided to put on one of my silliest tee shirts I got.   It makes me giggle every time I see it.

                                                               
                                        

Then off to the lawn of clover.   Stayed outside for hours just listening to the bees, birds and the occasional airplane flying over.

                                                               

Had a wonderful time just pondering, thinking and reading.   Oh got so carried away I even painted my toenails.   And well, since I couldn't make up my mind between two colors, I had to paint my fingernails the other color.

                                     
               

Course I had my faithful sidekick with me at all times.   

was sitting in the chair and looked over to the left side of my chair and this is what I spotted.   

The Man came home with two beautiful and huge blooming Hibiscus plants and sweeped me off to a lovely dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.   It's got the best patio dining with so much green from all the trees and plants.

All an all, it was the perfect day.   I got several phone calls, a few text messages, and so many e-mails.   Thank you!

Now that I am at a certain age I can pass along some wisdom.

-  Take the time to really know yourself,   for you are the only one that can make you happy.

- As much as possible, take the time to appreciate what you have.   It gives depth to your happiness.

May Day!

It's May 1st so it's May Day!   Ok, so I don't know about all that but what I do know about May Day is flowers a top a pole and ribbons you grab and run around in some crazy 7 year old doing a dance ritual thingy.

In 2nd grade,  I made Mrs Lemon a fabulous (remember I was in 2nd grade) bouquet out of flowers set in a empty quart box of milk.   My mom drove me to her house, I placed the milk quart box of beautiful (Mom was a gardener and loved roses so they had to be beautiful) flowers on her step, rang the bell and high tailed it Mom's car which as I remember her high tailing it off in a flash.  Probably more like a slow snail crawl so she could see my teacher's face.   Imagine my surprise on that Monday when Mrs. Lemon thanked me for her May Day gift.   Took me a long time to figure out how she knew it was me.

Happy Easter

XOXOXOX

In Honor of the Feast of Brigid

It is the 3rd annual Brigid in Cyperspace Poetry Reading.

                                                         

A Certain Lady

I've got no idea what to call this. How 'bout "The Report From Asheville" that is so overdue?

It probably seems on the rather odd side of things to be posting about Christmas in early  January but being we just finally were able to open the rest of our Christmas gifts a few days ago, it seems very fitting to me.    We had a good reason.  It is not like we didn't try.

Christmas was spent with the in-laws and my favorite out-law in Asheville.  Got quite the ribbing when I pointed out how blue the mountains looked.   As The Man's uncle pointed out "they're called the blue ridged mountains".   Yeah, yeah, yeah.  But I've never actually seen them be blue in the 6 1/2 years I've been going up there to their home.   Oh, the photo?   It's from their friends living room window!   There friends live down the mountain from them so the view is even better from my in-laws living room.                                                          

                              

As I mentioned earlier,  IT SNOWED the day after Christmas!!!

Was so excited I threw on my boots with my PJ's and went walking with the dogs.

                                          
                                     
                                     
                                          
                                 
                                                
                                    
                                              
                                    
                                    
                                       
                                  
                                             
                                  
               

 

there was some cousin wrestling in the snow.

 

 

 

The Man made a wicked apple pie completely from scratch for Christmas dinner.

 

Then there was the turkey carving and gravy making.

 

The paparazzi was out in full force for the unwrapping of gifts.

                                                                                  
                                                                                 
                                                                                              

Annie loved her surprise gifts from her Aunt & Uncle.

 

 

The scarves were a big hit too.   Somehow didn't get a photo of the Purl Scarf in action but here's the Rowan Biggy in action.

Turning the Corner

Happy 2008.

I know my future's looking brighter.   Hope your's is too.

Merry Christmas

                                 

                                           

                                                    

                                        

                                          

                                 

                        

                                       

                                       

                                          

                                        

May your stockings be filled to the brim with wonderful yarn and needles.

Christmas is Back!

Well alrighty, Christmas is back in full force.   Starting tomorrow the in-laws will be spending time with us or is that us with them.   Suppose it depends which angle you come at from.   I've offered up a meal so going to make the Moroccan Lamb Stew I discovered way back in February.   Get raves on it from our dinner guests and there has never been leftovers since everyone ends up going back for seconds and scrapping their bowls.    I put the stew on top of some brown rice and serve it with a salad.               

Christmas List:
1.  Tree decorated!
2. All the Christmas cards that will be done this year should be at their appointed houses by now. 
3. Gifts.   got all of them but one is still "in progress".
4. one case of wine for the holidays.   You just can't beat Trader Joe's!   By the way, their Oreo looking cookies with peppermint creme in them are to die for!
5. Gifts wrapped?   Yeah, right.   That'll be happening Christmas Eve

Christmas Music?

these two really should cover all my Christmas music bases!

The Francoise scarf for The Man's Grandmother turned out great.  It is so soft and cushy feeling.   The scarf could easily have been knit up in a night but it took me a little while to get used to the size 35 needles.   I had to stop every few rows to stretch my fingers
out.   Ended up knitting one skein a night so not bad even with slow progress.   The scarf took 3 skeins of Rowan Biggy Print.

The other "in progress" gift is another scarf that is near it's end.

It's the Purl Scarf.   Better pictures later!

Christmas Frenzy

We were able to get around to decorating the Christmas tree last night.   Had two reindeer helping. 

 

send money now for her psychiatric counseling.   Fear she will need years to undo what I made her wear last night.

this is the only time I can really remember poor Annie being embarrassed by what I made her model.                           

 

Course the other Reindeer didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Tree went up, got decorated and only one very old ornament got hurt in the process.         

 

Screaming along at one skien a night for the Grandmother's scarf in Rowan Biggy Print.   Wish the day had been nice here to get a good outdoor lighting shot of progress.  The yarn really has some wonderful subtle depth of colors in it that you just can't see here.   

There is a hint of what I call dusty rose in the lightest of browns.

                                                               

So is it a bad thing when one goes to the liquor store, can't make up their mind and walks out with Tequila, Rum, Vodka and Scotch?    Really wasn't sure if I wanted a Margarita, Eggnog and Rum, Martini or a finger of premium Scotch.    Holidays and work.   Don't ask. 

Turns out it was a Margarita but that 10 year old single malt Scotch is going to be very tasty in front of a fire one night.                                    

 

Off to have a steak dinner ( gotta keep those Texans happy, wink wink) and some version of Rice Roni.    I really was having a hard time with decisions after work today!